CFI Education has been holding an annual all-girl workshop as part of the My Place | My Story program for the last six years.

We introduced the program after noticing that girl students had a difficult time opening up around their male peers during the storytelling portion of the workshop. We wanted to create a space where young women could share their stories in a safe and secure environment without the judgment of their male peers and build filmmaking skills together.

The energy in our first All-Girls workshop was palpable. The camaraderie was very supportive, which is made evident by the quality of the work that the girls produced.

According to one participant:

I thought the fact that it was an all girl session was so supportive, encouraging. The environment was really great. I don’t know how it would be compared to one session with all sexes but in my experience everyone was so open to everybody ideas.I feel like people felt more inclined to share all their struggles. Because some people talked about body image and things like that which are not always the most comfortable things to talk about with guys around. In this way we were all able to speak openly.

Misbah Mamoon’s film “This Is Me” was made in the August 2016 All-Girl My Place | My Story. Her film tells the story of who she is in relation to how she views herself but also how she is viewed as a young Muslim woman who has elected to wear the hijab. It’s very honest, often funny and never preachy. It alternates from her speaking directly to the camera to having her thoughts illustrated through stop-motion animated drawings. She has lived all her life in Marin City, CA.